CN109413619B

CN109413619B - Information sending method, operation executing method, device and session management function entity

Info

Publication number: CN109413619B
Application number: CN201710692546.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周晓云; 周星月
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2017-08-14
Filing date: 2017-08-14
Publication date: 2022-01-28
Anticipated expiration: 2037-08-14
Also published as: WO2019033944A1; CN109413619A

Abstract

The invention provides an information sending and operation executing method and device and a session management function entity; the information sending method comprises the following steps: after selecting a first user plane function UPF as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session for user equipment UE, receiving flow guide request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF, wherein the flow guide request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a flow guide request for requesting a network to perform flow guide provided by an application accessed by the UE; returning first indication information for indicating a traffic guidance mode used when the network conducts traffic guidance to the application, wherein the traffic guidance mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode; the invention solves the problem that the flow direction can not be realized because the flow direction mode used by the network can not be obtained by the application layer in the related technology.

Description

Information sending method, operation executing method, device and session management function entity

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of communication, in particular to an information sending and operation executing method and device and a session management functional entity.

Background

The industry is currently studying the next generation wireless communication system (5)^thGeneration, abbreviated as 5G), fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of 5G in the related art, and the functions of the main functional entities are as follows: .

The base station is responsible for air interface resource scheduling and air interface connection management of a terminal access network;

the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) is mainly responsible for Access authentication, authorization and Mobility Management.

The Session Management Function (SMF) is mainly responsible for Session Management and address allocation of an Internet Protocol (IP) Protocol for interconnection between networks.

A User Plane Function (UPF) is a connection point of a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session, and is responsible for routing and forwarding packet Data, performing policies on packet Data, and the like.

The Policy Control Function (PCF) is mainly responsible for Policy decision.

In order to shorten network delay, avoid the user from accessing the traffic by detouring the path and causing overload of the core network, the operator always wants the user to access the traffic nearby. In order to achieve the above requirements, the following two network architectures are introduced into the 5G system. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a related art architecture for traffic steering using Multi-Homed, and as shown in fig. 2, a network introduces a Branch Point (BP) in a user plane link of a UE and allocates a new anchor point UPF, and the network also allocates another IP address to the UE. In the uplink direction, the forking point forwards data for the UE with the new IP address to the new anchor point UPF (UPF2), while data with the old IP address is still forwarded to the old anchor point UPF (UPF 1). In the downlink direction, the forking point aggregates data from the UPFs 1 and 2 and forwards the aggregated data to the base station. In actual deployment, the bifurcation point may be integrated with the UPF 2.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture for traffic steering by using an Uplink Classifier (UL CL) in the related art, as shown in fig. 3, in which an UL CL is inserted into a user plane link of a UE, and the UL CL can directly tap off services that can be provided by a local data network. The UL CL can be introduced during the PDU session setup or after the PDU session setup, when needed. In order to make the UL CL shunt the traffic correctly, the UL CL needs to install a correct shunt filter.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a related art method for influencing user plane routing by an application, as shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

step 400: the UE accesses the application through a PDU session (session) established with the UPF 1.

Step 401: an Application Function (AF) generates an AF traffic steering request. The content of the request includes information identifying the traffic information that needs to be directed (including DNN and slice selection information, AF Service identification (AF-Service-Identifier), application identification, or traffic filter information), traffic routing requirement information for the N6 interface (routing document identification), location information for the traffic-directed application (DNAI list), information for the UE that needs traffic direction, etc.

Step 402 a: if the AF is untrusted or the AF's request is not for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends a message to the NEF.

Step 402 b: the NEF authorizes the request and may perform some necessary mapping such as obtaining DNN and slice selection information, DNAI lists and routing document identification from the AF-Service-Identifier. The NEF sends a request to the PCF.

Step 402 c: when the request of the AF is for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends the request message directly to the corresponding PCF.

Step 403: the PCF returns an acknowledgement message to the AF.

Step 404: the PCF decides for each existing PDU-CAN session that is affected by the AF request. For each PDU-CAN session, the PCF updates the policy above the SMF through the PDU-CAN session. The SMF returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 405: SMF executes corresponding operation to reconfigure the user plane of PDU conversation according to the strategy newly issued by PCF: 1) inserting UL CL or BP in a user plane path; 2) when Multi-hosting is used, the UE is assigned a new address prefix 3) the traffic steering rules of the UPF on the target DNAI are updated.

Step 406: the SMF notifies the AF of the application execution result. The notification may be forwarded to the AF through the NEF.

In the above procedure, when the AF sends the traffic steering request, it does not know what mode (i.e. UL CL or BP) the SMF will select, but since the information provided by the application layer to the network is different in different modes, the information and the sequence of the interaction between the application layer and the UE and the AF and the network are also different. Thus, according to the prior art, if the AF does not know the mode selected by the SMF, it is not possible to provide the same information to the network to achieve traffic steering.

In view of the above technical problems in the related art, no effective solution has been proposed at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides an information sending and operation executing method and device and a session management function entity, which at least solve the problem that the flow direction cannot be realized due to the fact that a flow direction mode used by a network cannot be obtained by an application layer in the related technology.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information transmitting method including: after selecting a first user plane function UPF as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session for user equipment UE, receiving flow guide request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF, wherein the flow guide request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a flow guide request for requesting a network to perform flow guide provided by an application accessed by the UE; returning first indication information for indicating a traffic guidance mode used when the network conducts traffic guidance to the application, wherein the traffic guidance mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL traffic steering mode and a multi-homing traffic steering mode.

Optionally, the first indication information includes at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the traffic steering mode is the UL CL traffic steering mode or the multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether to send first internet protocol version 6 IPv6 prefix information; the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is transmitted, and indicates that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is not transmitted.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is the UL CL traffic steering manner, after the first indication information indicating the traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering is returned to the application, the method further includes: receiving a first strategy sent by a PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection; and switching the path of the user equipment for accessing the application according to the first strategy.

Optionally, switching a path for the user equipment to access the application according to the first policy includes: formulating a first rule according to a first strategy; sending the first rule to the UL CL; wherein the first rule is used for instructing the UL CL to send the received uplink data of the UE access application to the second UPF which is the second anchor point of the PDU session.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering manner used is the multihomed traffic steering manner, after the first indication information indicating the traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering is returned to the application, the method further includes: receiving a second strategy sent by the PCF entity; the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which the service provided by the application to the UE is to be redirected; and switching the path of the user equipment for accessing the application according to the second strategy.

Optionally, switching a path for the user equipment to access the application according to the second policy includes: formulating a second rule according to a second strategy; sending a second rule to a Bifurcation Point (BP), wherein the second rule is used for indicating the BP to send the received uplink data accessed and applied by the UE to a third UPF (uplink packet data function) serving as a third anchor point of the PDU session; and sending a route advertisement message to the UE through the third UPF, wherein the route advertisement message carries the first IPv6 prefix information and the route option information, and the route option information carries address information of an application server to which the service provided by the application to the UE is to be redirected.

Optionally, after switching a path for the user equipment to access the application according to the second policy, the method includes: and sending notification information to an application layer, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application UE of completing the path switching for accessing the application.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an operation execution method including: sending a flow guide request for requesting a network to guide the flow; receiving first indication information returned by the network and used for indicating a traffic guidance mode used when the network conducts traffic guidance, wherein the traffic guidance mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode; and executing application operation according to the flow guiding mode indicated by the first indication information.

Optionally, the first indication information includes at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the used traffic steering mode is a UL CL traffic steering mode or a multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether prefix information of IPv6 version 6 of the first internet protocol is received; when the first IPv6 prefix information is received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method, and when the first IPv6 prefix information is not received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is the UL CL traffic steering manner, performing the application operation according to the traffic steering manner indicated by the first indication information includes: executing an application reselection operation; sending the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch the path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

Optionally, the reselected flow description information includes address information of an application server to which access of the UE has been redirected.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering manner used is the multihomed traffic steering manner, performing the application operation according to the traffic steering manner indicated by the first indication information includes: providing address information to a network that services provided by an application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server; receiving notification information provided by a network, wherein the notification information is used for notifying application UE of completing path switching for accessing an application; the service provided by the application to the UE is redirected to the address of the new application server.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information transmitting apparatus including: a first receiving module, configured to select a first user plane function UPF for a user equipment UE as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session, and then receive traffic steering request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF, where the traffic steering request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a traffic steering request provided by an application being accessed by the UE and used for requesting a network to perform traffic steering; the first sending module is configured to return, to the application, first indication information used for indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering manner includes one of: an uplink classifier UL CL traffic steering mode and a multi-homing traffic steering mode.

Optionally, the first indication information includes at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the used traffic steering mode is a UL CL traffic steering mode or a multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether prefix information of IPv6 version 6 of the first internet protocol is sent; the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is transmitted, and indicates that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is not transmitted.

Optionally, when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, the apparatus further includes: a second receiving module, configured to receive the first policy sent by the PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection; and the first switching module is used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the first strategy.

Optionally, the first switching module comprises: the first generating unit is used for making a first rule according to a first strategy; a first sending unit, configured to send the first rule to the UL CL; wherein the first rule is used for instructing the UL CL to send the received uplink data of the UE access application to the second UPF which is the second anchor point of the PDU session.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is a multihoming traffic steering method, the apparatus further includes: a third receiving module, configured to receive a second policy sent by the PCF entity; the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which the access of the UE provided by the application is to be redirected; and the second switching module is used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second strategy.

Optionally, the second switching module includes: the second generating unit is used for making a second rule according to a second strategy; a second sending unit, configured to send a second rule to the bifurcation point BP, where the second rule is used to instruct the BP to send the received uplink data accessed and applied by the UE to a third UPF serving as a third anchor point of the PDU session; a third sending unit, configured to send a route advertisement message to the user equipment through a third UPF, where the route advertisement message carries prefix information and routing option information of the first IPv6, and the routing option information carries address information of an application server to which access of the UE provided by the application will be redirected.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises: and the second sending module is used for sending notification information to the application layer, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application layer that the path switching of the user equipment accessing the application is completed.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an operation execution apparatus including: a sending module, configured to send a traffic steering request for requesting a network to perform traffic steering; the receiving module is used for receiving first indication information which is returned by the network and used for indicating a traffic guiding mode used when the network conducts traffic guiding, wherein the traffic guiding mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode; and the operation module is used for executing application operation according to the flow guide mode indicated by the first indication information.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is the UL CL traffic steering manner, the operation module includes: a first reselection unit, configured to perform an application reselection operation; a first sending unit, configured to send the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch the path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is a multi-homing traffic steering manner, the operation module includes: and the first reselection unit is used for executing application reselection operation after the network completes the switching of the path of the user equipment for accessing the application.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is a multihoming traffic steering manner, the operation module includes: a second sending unit, configured to send, to the network, address information that a service provided by the application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server; a first receiving unit, configured to receive notification information provided by the network, where the notification information is used to notify the application that path switching for the UE to access the application is completed; a redirection unit, configured to redirect a service provided by the application to the UE to an address of the new application server.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a session management function entity, including: a processor for executing a program, wherein the program when executed performs any of the methods described above.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an application layer device including: a processor for executing a program, wherein the program when executed performs any of the methods described above.

According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a storage medium comprising a stored program, wherein the program when executed performs the method of any one of the above.

According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a processor for executing a program, wherein the program executes to perform any one of the above methods.

According to the invention, after receiving the traffic guidance request indication information sent by the PCF, the first indication information for indicating the traffic guidance mode used when the network performs traffic guidance is returned to the application, so that the application can acquire the traffic guidance direction used by the network and further realize traffic guidance, and therefore, the problem that the application layer cannot realize traffic guidance due to the fact that the traffic guidance mode used by the network cannot be acquired can be solved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention without limiting the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a 5G architecture in the related art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a related art architecture for traffic steering using Multi-Homed (Multi-Homed);

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture for traffic steering by using an Uplink Classifier (UL CL) in the related art;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the application of influencing user plane routing in the related art;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of an information transmitting method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an operation execution method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a block diagram of the structure of an information transmitting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a block diagram of the structure of an operation performing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow between an application layer and a network when SMF performs traffic steering in UL CL mode according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow between an application layer and a network when an SMF performs traffic steering in a Multi-hosting mode according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with embodiments. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present invention and in the drawings described above are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order.

Example 1

In this embodiment, an information sending method operating in the network architecture of fig. 2 or fig. 3 is provided, and fig. 5 is a flowchart of the information sending method according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the flowchart includes the following steps:

step S502, after selecting a first user plane function UPF as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session for user equipment UE, receiving flow guide request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF, wherein the flow guide request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a flow guide request provided by an application being accessed by the UE and used for requesting a network to conduct flow guide;

step S504, first indication information used for indicating the traffic guiding mode used when the network conducts the traffic guiding is returned to the application, and the traffic guiding mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL traffic steering mode and a multi-homing traffic steering mode.

Through the above steps, after receiving the traffic steering request indication information sent by the PCF, the first indication information for indicating the traffic steering mode used when the network performs traffic steering is returned to the application, so that the application can acquire the traffic steering direction used by the network and can further implement traffic steering, and therefore, the problem that the application layer cannot implement traffic steering due to the fact that the traffic steering mode used by the network cannot be acquired can be solved.

The first indication information may be display indication information or implicit indication information, and therefore, the first indication information may include at least the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the traffic steering mode is the UL CL traffic steering mode or the multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether to send first internet protocol version 6 IPv6 prefix information; the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is transmitted, and indicates that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is not transmitted. Whether to send the first IPv6 prefix information is actually an implicit indication.

It should be noted that the first IPv6 prefix information may be IPv6 prefix information newly allocated to the user equipment, but is not limited thereto.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, after step S504, the method further includes: receiving a first strategy sent by a PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection; and switching the path of the user equipment for accessing the application according to the first strategy.

It should be noted that, switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the first policy may be represented as: formulating a first rule according to a first strategy; sending the first rule to the UL CL; wherein the first rule is used for instructing the UL CL to send the received uplink data of the UE access application to the second UPF which is the second anchor point of the PDU session.

The second UPF of the second anchor point is a new UPF different from the first UPF, which is selected when determining to perform traffic steering using the UL CL traffic steering scheme.

When the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is the UL CL traffic steering manner, application reselection is performed first, after application reselection is completed, the reselected flow description information is provided to the core network, and the core network switches the path of the application to the UE (i.e., user plane optimization).

In an embodiment of the present invention, in a case where the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is a multihoming traffic steering method, after step S504, the method may further include: receiving a second strategy sent by the PCF entity; the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which the service provided by the application to the UE is to be redirected; and switching the path of the user equipment for accessing the application according to the second strategy.

It should be noted that, switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second policy may be represented as: formulating a second rule according to a second strategy; sending a second rule to a Bifurcation Point (BP), wherein the second rule is used for indicating the BP to send the received uplink data accessed and applied by the UE to a third UPF (uplink packet data function) serving as a third anchor point of the PDU session; and sending a route advertisement message to the UE through the third UPF, wherein the route advertisement message carries the first IPv6 prefix information and the route option information, and the route option information carries address information of an application server to which the service provided by the application to the UE is to be redirected.

The third UPF is a new UPF different from the first UPF, which is selected when determining to perform traffic steering using the multihoming traffic steering method.

It should be noted that, after switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second policy, the method may further include: and sending notification information to an application layer, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application UE of completing the path switching for accessing the application.

It should be noted that, when the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering manner used is the multihoming traffic steering manner, after the path through which the UE accesses the application is switched (user plane optimization), the application layer interacts with the UE to complete reselection of the application layer.

Optionally, the main body of the above steps may be a core network device, specifically, a session management function SMF entity, and the like, but is not limited thereto.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation mode in many cases. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (e.g., ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes instructions for enabling a terminal device (e.g., a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present invention.

Example 2

In the present embodiment, an operation execution method running in the network architecture of fig. 2 or fig. 3 is provided, fig. 6 is a flowchart of the operation execution method according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, the flowchart includes the following steps:

step S602, sending a traffic direction request for requesting a network to perform traffic direction;

step S604, receiving first indication information, which is returned by the network and used for indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering manner includes one of the following: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode;

step S606, executing the application operation according to the traffic guidance mode indicated by the first indication information.

Through the steps, the first indication information which is returned by the network and used for indicating the traffic guidance mode used by the network for traffic guidance can be received, so that the application can acquire the traffic guidance mode used by the network and further realize traffic guidance, and the problem that the application layer cannot realize traffic guidance due to the fact that the traffic guidance mode used by the network cannot be acquired can be solved.

It should be noted that the first indication information may include at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the used traffic steering mode is a UL CL traffic steering mode or a multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether prefix information of IPv6 version 6 of the first internet protocol is received; when the first IPv6 prefix information is received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method, and when the first IPv6 prefix information is not received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, the step S606 may be represented as: executing an application reselection operation; sending the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch the path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

It should be noted that the reselected flow description information includes address information of an application server to which access of the UE has been redirected.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method, the step S606 may be represented as: sending address information to a network that a service provided by an application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server; receiving notification information provided by a network, wherein the notification information can be used for notifying the application UE of completing the path switching of the access application; the service provided by the application to the UE is redirected to the address of the new application server.

It should be noted that the execution subject of the above steps may be an application layer, and specifically, may be an application function AF entity, but is not limited thereto.

Example 3

In this embodiment, an information sending apparatus is further provided, and the apparatus is used to implement the foregoing embodiments and preferred embodiments, and the description already made is omitted. As used below, the term "module" may be a combination of software and/or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the means described in the embodiments below are preferably implemented in software, an implementation in hardware, or a combination of software and hardware is also possible and contemplated.

Fig. 7 is a block diagram of the structure of an information transmitting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7, the apparatus including:

a first receiving module 72, configured to receive traffic steering request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF after selecting a first user plane function UPF as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session for a user equipment UE, where the traffic steering request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a traffic steering request for requesting a network to perform traffic steering, provided by an application that the UE is accessing;

a first sending module 74, connected to the first receiving module 72, configured to return, to the application, first indication information indicating a traffic steering method used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering method includes one of: an uplink classifier UL CL traffic steering mode and a multi-homing traffic steering mode.

With the above apparatus, after the first receiving module 72 receives the traffic steering request indication information sent by the PCF, the first receiving module 72 returns the first indication information for indicating the traffic steering manner used by the network to the application, so that the application can acquire the traffic steering direction used by the network, and can implement traffic steering.

It should be noted that the first indication information may include at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the used traffic steering mode is a UL CL traffic steering mode or a multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether prefix information of IPv6 version 6 of the first internet protocol is sent; the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is the multihomed traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is transmitted, and indicates that the traffic steering method used is the UL CL traffic steering method when the first IPv6 prefix information is not transmitted.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, the apparatus may further include: a second receiving module, connected to the first sending module 74, configured to receive the first policy sent by the PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection; and the first switching module is connected with the second receiving module and used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the first strategy.

It should be noted that the first switching module includes: the first generating unit is used for making a first rule according to a first strategy; a first sending unit, connected to the first generating unit, for sending a first rule to the UL CL; wherein the first rule is used for instructing the UL CL to send the received uplink data of the UE access application to the second UPF which is the second anchor point of the PDU session.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the traffic steering method used is a multihomed traffic steering method, the apparatus may further include: a third receiving module, connected to the first sending module 74, configured to receive a second policy sent by the PCF entity; the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which the access of the UE provided by the application is to be redirected; and the second switching module is connected with the third receiving module and used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to a second strategy.

It should be noted that, the second switching module may include: the second generating unit is used for making a second rule according to a second strategy; a second sending unit, configured to send a second rule to the bifurcation point BP, where the second rule is used to instruct the BP to send the received uplink data accessed and applied by the UE to a third UPF serving as a third anchor point of the PDU session; and a third sending unit, connected to the second generating unit, configured to send a route advertisement message to the user equipment through a third UPF, where the route advertisement message carries prefix information and routing option information of the first IPv6, and the routing option information carries address information of an application server to which access of the UE provided by the application will be redirected.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus may further include: and the second sending module is connected with the second switching module and used for sending notification information to the application layer, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application layer that the path switching of the user equipment accessing the application is completed.

It should be noted that the above apparatus may be located in a core network device, specifically, may be located in a session management function SMF entity, and the like, but is not limited thereto.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a session management function SMF entity, including: a processor for running a program, wherein the program when running performs the method described in embodiment 1.

It should be noted that, the above modules may be implemented by software or hardware, and for the latter, the following may be implemented, but not limited to: the modules are all positioned in the same processor; alternatively, the modules are respectively located in different processors in any combination.

Example 4

In this embodiment, an operation executing apparatus is further provided, and the apparatus is used to implement the foregoing embodiments and preferred embodiments, and the description of the apparatus is omitted for brevity. As used below, the term "module" may be a combination of software and/or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the means described in the embodiments below are preferably implemented in software, an implementation in hardware, or a combination of software and hardware is also possible and contemplated.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram showing the construction of an operation performing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus including:

a sending module 82, configured to send a traffic steering request for requesting a network to perform traffic steering;

a receiving module 84, connected to the sending module 82, configured to receive first indication information, which is returned by the network and is used for indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering manner includes one of the following: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode;

and an operation module 86, connected to the receiving module 84, for executing an application operation according to the traffic guidance mode indicated by the first indication information.

Through the device, the first indication information which is returned by the network and used for indicating the traffic guidance mode used when the network performs traffic guidance can be received through the receiving module 84, so that the application can acquire the traffic guidance mode used by the network and further can realize traffic guidance, and therefore, the problem that the application layer cannot realize traffic guidance due to the fact that the traffic guidance mode used by the network cannot be acquired can be solved.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering manner is the UL CL traffic steering manner, the operation module 86 includes: a first reselection unit, configured to perform an application reselection operation; a first sending unit, connected to the first reselecting unit, for sending the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch the path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

In an embodiment of the present invention, in a case that the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering manner used is a multihoming traffic steering manner, the operation module 86 may include: a second sending unit, configured to send, to the network, address information that a service provided by the application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server; a first receiving unit, connected to the second sending unit, configured to receive notification information provided by the network, where the notification information is used to notify the application that the path switching for the UE to access the application is completed; a redirection unit, connected to the first receiving unit, configured to redirect the service provided by the application to the UE to the address of the new application server.

It should be noted that the above apparatus may be located in an application layer device, and in particular, may be applied to an AF application function entity, but is not limited thereto.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides an application layer device, including: a processor for running a program, wherein the program when running performs the method of embodiment 2.

Example 5

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a storage medium including a stored program, where the program executes any one of the methods described above.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the storage medium may include, but is not limited to: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a removable hard disk, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a processor configured to execute a program, where the program executes to perform any of the steps in the method.

Optionally, the specific examples in this embodiment may refer to the examples described in the above embodiments and optional implementation manners, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

For a better understanding of the present invention, the present invention is further explained below with reference to preferred examples.

Preferred embodiment 1

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow between an application layer and a network when SMF performs traffic steering in UL CL mode according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 9, the process includes the following steps:

step 900: the UE accesses the application through a PDU session established with the UPF 1. The UE interacts with an Application Server (Application Server 1) of the Application. The network allocates IPv6 prefix 1 to the UE. A PDR rule 0 for controlling policy, charging, routing and the like of application data which a user is accessing is installed on the UPF 1;

step 901: the AF generates an AF traffic steering request. The content of the request includes information identifying the traffic information that needs to be directed (including DNN and slice selection information or AF-Service-Identifier), location information of the traffic-directed application (DNAI list), route document identification, information of the UE that needs traffic-direction, etc.

Step 902 a: if the AF is untrusted or the AF's request is not for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends a message to the NEF.

Step 902 b: the NEF authorizes the request and may perform some necessary mapping such as obtaining DNN and slice selection information, DNAI lists and routing document identification from the AF-Service-Identifier. NEF sends request to PCF

Step 902 c: when the request of the AF is for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends the request message directly to the corresponding PCF.

Step 903: the PCF returns an acknowledgement message to the AF.

Step 904: the PCF decides for each existing PDU-CAN session that is affected by the AF request. For each PDU-CAN session, the PCF sends a message to the SMF, where the message carries a traffic steering request indication (equivalent to the traffic steering request indication information in the above-described embodiment) and DNAI.

Step 905: the SMF decides to use UL CL for traffic steering based on network policy, network capabilities and UE capabilities. A new anchor UPF (i.e., UPF2) and a UL CL are selected based on the DNAI. UL CL may be integrated with UPF 2.

Step 906: the SMF sends a session management request message to the AMF, wherein the message carries tunnel information of UL CL receiving uplink data.

Step 907: the AMF sends an N2 session request message to the RAN, wherein the message carries tunnel information of uplink data received by the UL CL. And the RAN updates the tunnel information of the uplink data.

Step 908: the RAN returns an acknowledgement message to the AMF, which may carry updated tunnel information of the downlink data received by the RAN.

Step 909: and the AMF returns a confirmation message to the SMF, wherein the message carries the received updated tunnel information of the RAN receiving downlink data.

Step 910: the SMF sends an N4 session establishment request to the UL CL, carrying the tunnel information of the downlink data received by the RAN. The UPFs 1 and 2 receive tunnel information of the upstream data. The UL CL returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 911: the SMF sends an N4 session establishment request to the UPF2, and the message carries the tunnel information of the UL CL received downlink data. The UPF2 returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 912: the SMF sends an N4 session modification message to the UPF1, wherein the message carries the tunnel information of the UL CL received downlink data. The UPF1 returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 913: the SMF sends a notification message (corresponding to the first indication information) to the AF, where the message carries an indication of UL CL. The UL CL indication may not be a displayed indication. If in the Multi-hosting scenario in fig. 2, the SMF reports a new IPv6 Prefix to the AF. If the SMF does not report the new IPv6 Prefix to the AF in this step, the AF can determine that the SMF uses UL CL for traffic steering.

Step 914: the application layer interacts with the UE according to the indication. And informing the UE to interact with another Application Server (Application Server 2) of the Application, and continuing service access.

Step 915 a: after the Application layer switching or reselection is completed, the AF sends a message to the NEF, wherein the message carries the current flow description information, and the message at least comprises the address information of the Application Server 2.

Step 915 b: the NEF authorizes the request, which it sends to the PCF.

Step 915 c: AF sends request message to corresponding PCF directly, the message carries current flow description information, the information at least includes address information of Application Server 2.

Step 916: the PCF makes a new policy decision. The PCF is included to formulate PCC rules according to the flow description information. The PCF sends the new policy to the SMF. And the SMF generates a PDR rule 1 and a PDR rule 2 according to the newly established PCC rule. Wherein PDR rule 1 (equivalent to the first rule in the above-described embodiment) will be provided to the UL CL, instructing the UL CL to send the uplink data of the user access application received from the RAN to UPF2 (equivalent to the second UPF in the above-described embodiment). PDR rule 2 will be provided to the UPF2 containing traffic steering policies, QoS policies, etc. that are formulated based on the routing document identification.

Step 917: the SMF sends PDR rule 1 to the UL CL so that the UL CL sends the UPF2 the uplink data of the user access application received from the RAN. While other data is still sent to the UPF 1. The UL CL returns an acknowledgement message to the SMF after installing PDR rule 1.

Step 918: the SMF sends the PDR rule 2 to the UPF2, so that the UPF2 can perform policy, charging and routing control on the data of the UE access application.

Step 919: the SMF informs the UPF1 to remove the previously installed PDU rule 0.

Through the above process, the application layer interacts with the UE to perform application reselection, and then provides the reselected flow description information to the 5G core network, and the 5G core network switches the path through which the user accesses the application (i.e., user plane optimization).

Preferred embodiment two

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow between an application layer and a network when an SMF performs traffic steering in a Multi-hosting mode according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 10, the method comprises the following steps:

step 1000: the UE accesses the application through a PDU session established with the UPF 1. The UE interacts with an Application Server (Application Server 1) of the Application. The network assigns IPv6 prefix 1 to the UE. A PDR rule 0 for controlling policy, charging, routing and the like of application data which a user is accessing is installed on the UPF 1;

step 1001: the AF generates an AF traffic steering request. The content of the request includes information identifying the traffic information that needs to be directed (including DNN and slice selection information or AF-Service-Identifier), location information of the traffic-directed application (DNAI list), route document identification, information of the UE that needs traffic-direction, etc.

Step 1002 a: if the AF is untrusted or the AF's request is not for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends a message to the NEF.

Step 1002 b: the NEF authorizes the request and may perform some necessary mapping such as obtaining DNN and slice selection information, DNAI lists and routing document identification from the AF-Service-Identifier. NEF sends request to PCF

Step 1002 c: when the request of the AF is for an ongoing PDU session, the AF sends the request message directly to the corresponding PCF.

Step 1003: the PCF returns an acknowledgement message to the AF.

Step 1004: the PCF decides for each existing PDU-CAN session that is affected by the AF request. For each PDU-CAN session, the PCF sends a message to the SMF, where the message carries a traffic steering request indication (equivalent to the traffic steering request indication information of the above-described embodiment) and DNAI.

Step 1005: the SMF determines to adopt Multi-routing to conduct traffic steering according to network strategies, network capabilities and UE capabilities. A new anchor UPF (i.e., UPF2) and a bifurcation point BP are selected based on DNAI. BP may be integrated with UPF 2. In addition, the SMF allocates IPv6 Prefix 2 to the UE according to the UPF 2.

Step 1006: SMF sends session management request message to AMF, wherein the message carries tunnel information of BP receiving uplink data.

Step 1007: the AMF sends an N2 session request message to the RAN, wherein the message carries tunnel information of BP receiving uplink data. And the RAN updates the tunnel information of the uplink data.

Step 1008: the RAN returns an acknowledgement message to the AMF, which may carry updated tunnel information of the downlink data received by the RAN.

Step 1009: and the AMF returns a confirmation message to the SMF, wherein the message carries the received updated tunnel information of the RAN receiving downlink data.

Step 1010: the SMF sends an N4 session establishment request to the BP, and carries the tunnel information of the downlink data received by the RAN. The UPFs 1 and 2 receive tunnel information of the upstream data. The BP returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 1011: the SMF sends an N4 session establishment request to the UPF2, and the message carries tunnel information of the BP receiving downlink data. The UPF2 returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 1012: the SMF sends an N4 session modification message to the UPF1, wherein the message carries tunnel information of the BP receiving downlink data. The UPF1 returns an acknowledgement message.

Step 1013: the SMF sends a notification message (corresponding to the first indication information of the above-described embodiment) to the AF, where the message carries an indication of Multi-Homing and possibly IPv6 Prefix 2. The SMF may not have a single Multi-homeing indication, because reporting IPv6 Prefix 2 may indicate that the SMF uses Multi-homeing for traffic steering.

Step 1014 a: the AF sends a message to the NEF, the message carrying the address information of the new Application Server 2.

Step 1014 b: the NEF authorizes the request, which it sends to the PCF.

Step 1014 c: AF sends request message to corresponding PCF directly, the message carries address information of new Application Server 2.

Step 1015: the PCF returns an acknowledgement message to the AF.

Step 1016: the PCF makes a new policy decision. Including PCF according to the new Application

The address information of the Server2 makes a PCC rule. The PCF sends the new policy to the SMF. SMF formulates PDR1 and PDR 2. Wherein the PDR1 sends upstream data sent to the BP for instructing the BP to send a source address of IPv6 Prefix 1 to the UPF1, and the PDR2 (corresponding to the second rule of the above embodiment) sends upstream data sent to the BP for instructing the BP to send a source address of IPv6 Prefix 2 to the UPF 2. Further, the SMF generates PDR3 according to the PCC rule. The PDR3 carries a filter template containing IPv6 Prefix 2 and Application Server2 address information, and corresponding strategies such as QoS, charging, flow guiding and the like. PDR3 will send to UPF 2;

step 1017: the SMF sends the PDR1 and the PDR2 to the BP, so that the BP receives the upstream data with the source address of IPv6 Prefix 1 from the RAN and sends the upstream data to the UPF1, and the upstream data with the source address of IPv6 Prefix 2 sends the UPF 2. And the BP returns an acknowledgement message to the SMF after installing the PDR rule 1.

Step 1018: the SMF sends the PDR rule 3 to the UPF2, so that the UPF2 can perform policy, charging and routing control on the data of the UE access application.

Step 1019: the SMF sends a route advertisement message through the UPF2, wherein the message carries the IPv6 Prefix 2 and the routing option information 2, and the routing option message carries the address information of the Application Server 2.

Step 1020: the SMF sends a route advertisement message through the UPF1, wherein the message carries the IPv6 Prefix 1 and the route option information 1.

Step 1021: the SMF informs the AF of the completion of the user plane reselection (i.e., path switch).

Step 1022: the AF interacts with the UE for application layer redirection (or application layer reselection). The method comprises the steps that the Application informs the UE to access the Application Server2, and the UE accesses the Application by adopting IPv6 Prefix 2 according to the routing option information 2.

The following are optional steps.

Step 1023 a: and the AF sends a message to the NEF, wherein the message carries service information and comprises current flow description information.

Step 1023 b: the NEF authorizes the request, which it sends to the PCF.

Step 1023 c: the AF directly sends a request message to the corresponding PCF, where the message carries service information, including current flow description information.

Step 1024: the PCF returns an acknowledgement message to the AF.

Step 1025: the PCF makes a new policy decision. And updating the PCC rules formulated before according to the new flow description information. The PCF sends the new policy to the SMF. The SMF updates PDR3 according to the PCC rule. The PDR3 carries a filter template containing new flow description information and corresponding policies such as QoS, charging, traffic steering, etc. PDR3 will send to UPF 2;

step 1026: the SMF notifies the UPF1 to delete the PDR 0.

Step 1027: the SMF sends the updated PDR3 UPF 2.

Through the above process, the 5G core network notifies the application layer after switching the path of the user access application (i.e., user plane optimization), and the application layer interacts with the UE to complete reselection of the application layer (or application layer switching).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the modules or steps of the present invention described above may be implemented by a general purpose computing device, they may be centralized on a single computing device or distributed across a network of multiple computing devices, and alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by a computing device, such that they may be stored in a storage device and executed by a computing device, and in some cases, the steps shown or described may be performed in an order different than that described herein, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or multiple ones of them may be fabricated into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An information transmission method, comprising:

after selecting a first User Plane Function (UPF) as a first anchor point of a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session for User Equipment (UE), receiving flow guide request indication information sent by a Policy and Control Function (PCF), wherein the flow guide request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a flow guide request which is provided by an application being accessed by the UE and used for requesting a network to conduct flow guide;

returning first indication information for indicating a traffic guidance mode used when the network conducts traffic guidance to the application, wherein the traffic guidance mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, after first indication information indicating a traffic steering method used when the network steers traffic is returned to the application, the method further includes:

receiving a first strategy sent by the PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection;

and switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the first strategy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the traffic steering mode is a UL CL traffic steering mode or a multihoming traffic steering mode, and whether to send first internet protocol version 6 IPv6 prefix information;

wherein the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering scheme used is a multihomed traffic steering scheme when the first IPv6 prefix information is transmitted, and is used to indicate that the traffic steering scheme used is a UL CL traffic steering scheme when the first IPv6 prefix information is not transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein switching the path for the user equipment to access the application according to the first policy comprises:

formulating a first rule according to the first strategy;

sending the first rule to UL CL; wherein the first rule is used to instruct the UL CL to send the received uplink data that the UE accesses the application to a second UPF that is a second anchor point of the PDU session.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering manner is a multihomed traffic steering manner, after first indication information indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering is returned to the application, the method further comprises:

receiving a second strategy sent by the PCF entity; wherein the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which a service provided by the application to the UE will be redirected;

and switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second strategy.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second policy comprises:

formulating a second rule according to the second strategy;

sending the second rule to a Bifurcation Point (BP), wherein the second rule is used for instructing the BP to send the received uplink data of the UE accessing the application to a third UPF (uplink packet data) serving as a third anchor point of the PDU session;

and sending a route advertisement message to the UE through the third UPF, wherein the route advertisement message carries the first IPv6 prefix information and route option information, and the route option information carries address information of an application server to which a service provided by the application to the UE is to be redirected.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second policy comprises:

and sending notification information to the application, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application that the path switching of the UE accessing the application is completed.

7. An operation execution method, comprising:

sending a flow guide request for requesting a network to guide the flow;

receiving first indication information returned by the network and used for indicating a traffic guidance mode used when the network conducts traffic guidance, wherein the traffic guidance mode comprises one of the following modes: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode;

executing application operation according to the flow guiding mode indicated by the first indication information; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the first indication information comprises at least one of the following information: explicit indication information for indicating whether the traffic steering manner used is a UL CL traffic steering manner or a multihoming traffic steering manner, and whether first internet protocol version 6 IPv6 prefix information is received; wherein, when the first IPv6 prefix information is received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is a multihomed traffic steering method, and when the first IPv6 prefix information is not received, the first indication information is used to indicate that the traffic steering method used is a UL CL traffic steering method; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is a UL CL traffic steering manner, performing an application operation according to the traffic steering manner indicated by the first indication information includes:

executing an application reselection operation;

sending the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch a path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the reselected flow description information comprises address information of an application server to which access of the UE has been redirected.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein, in a case that the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering manner is a multihomed traffic steering manner, performing an application operation according to the traffic steering manner indicated by the first indication information comprises:

sending address information to the network that the service provided by the application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server;

receiving notification information provided by the network, wherein the notification information is used for notifying the application that the path switching of the UE accessing the application is completed;

redirecting the service provided by the application to the UE to the address of the new application server.

10. An information transmission apparatus, comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to select a first user plane function UPF for a user equipment UE as a first anchor point of a protocol data unit PDU session, and then receive traffic steering request indication information sent by a policy and control function PCF, where the traffic steering request indication information is formulated by the PCF according to a traffic steering request provided by an application being accessed by the UE and used for requesting a network to perform traffic steering;

a first sending module, configured to return, to the application, first indication information used for indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering manner includes one of: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering method is the UL CL traffic steering method, the apparatus further includes:

a second receiving module, configured to receive the first policy sent by the PCF entity; the first strategy is a strategy formulated by the PCF entity according to the flow description information provided by the application after completing application reselection;

and the first switching module is used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the first strategy.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of: explicit indication information for indicating whether the traffic steering manner used is a UL CL traffic steering manner or a multihoming traffic steering manner, and whether first internet protocol version 6 IPv6 prefix information is sent;

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first switching module comprises:

the first generating unit is used for making a first rule according to the first strategy;

a first sending unit, configured to send the first rule to UL CL; wherein the first rule is used to instruct the UL CL to send the received uplink data that the UE accesses the application to a second UPF that is a second anchor point of the PDU session.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein in a case where the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering scheme is a multihomed traffic steering scheme, the apparatus further comprises:

a third receiving module, configured to receive a second policy sent by the PCF entity; wherein the second policy is a policy formulated by the PCF entity according to address information of an application server to which the access of the UE provided by the application will be redirected;

and the second switching module is used for switching the path of the user equipment accessing the application according to the second strategy.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second switching module comprises:

the second generating unit is used for making a second rule according to the second strategy;

a second sending unit, configured to send the second rule to a bifurcation point BP, where the second rule is used to instruct the BP to send the received uplink data that the UE accesses the application to a third UPF that is a third anchor point of the PDU session;

a third sending unit, configured to send a route advertisement message to the user equipment through the third UPF, where the route advertisement message carries prefix information and routing option information of the first IPv6, and the routing option information carries address information of an application server to which access of the UE provided by the application will be redirected.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

and a second sending module, configured to send notification information to the application, where the notification information is used to notify the application user equipment that path switching for accessing the application is completed.

16. An operation execution apparatus, comprising:

a sending module, configured to send a traffic steering request for requesting a network to perform traffic steering;

a receiving module, configured to receive first indication information, which is returned by the network and used for indicating a traffic steering manner used when the network performs traffic steering, where the traffic steering manner includes one of: an uplink classifier UL CL flow guiding mode and a multi-homing flow guiding mode;

the operation module is used for executing application operation according to the flow guiding mode indicated by the first indication information; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the first indication information is used to indicate that the used traffic steering manner is a UL CL traffic steering manner, the operation module includes:

a first reselection unit, configured to perform an application reselection operation;

a first sending unit, configured to send the reselected flow description information to a policy and control function PCF; the flow description information is used for the network to switch a path of the user equipment UE accessing the application.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein in a case that the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering manner is a multihoming traffic steering manner, the operation module includes:

and the first reselection unit is used for executing application reselection operation after the network completes the switching of the path of the user equipment for accessing the application.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein in a case that the first indication information indicates that the used traffic steering manner is a multihoming traffic steering manner, the operation module includes:

a second sending unit, configured to send, to the network, address information that a service provided by the application to the UE will be redirected to a new application server;

a first receiving unit, configured to receive notification information provided by the network, where the notification information is used to notify the application that path switching for the UE to access the application is completed;

a redirection unit, configured to redirect a service provided by the application to the UE to an address of the new application server.

19. A session management function entity, comprising: a processor for running a program, wherein the program when running performs the method of any of claims 1 to 6.

20. An application layer device, comprising: a processor for running a program, wherein the program when running performs the method of any of claims 7 to 9.

21. A storage medium, comprising a stored program, wherein the program when executed performs the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.

22. A storage medium, comprising a stored program, wherein the program when executed performs the method of any one of claims 7 to 9.